Chipps hold on to nip Red Riders in wild finish

Santa Clause was in the crowd at Saturday night's girls basketball game between Chippewa and Orrville.

However, the expression on Chipps coach Denny Schrock's face as he walked off the court after his team escaped with a 71-67 win was hardly a merry one.

No, Schrock looked more like someone who was simply relieved that the presents were finally unwrapped, the relatives had all gone home and that another holiday -- in this case another win -- was in the books.

"It was a weird game. The momentum changed so quickly," said Schrock, whose team nearly saw the Red Riders make an improbable comeback in a game that contained all of the madness of a shopping mall during the final hours before Christmas. "We had that big lead and then TaNeisha Winters just took the game over. She was in a rhythm."

That's an understatement.

Chippewa (5-1) built a 39-22 lead at halftime and was in front 57-42 heading into the final quarter.

That's when Winters took over.

The sophomore standout scored 13 of her career-high 33 points in the final period by attacking the basket over and over again to get the Riders (4-4) back into the game. Her two free throws with 1:21 left in the fourth trimmed Chippewa's once-commanding lead to just four at 66-62.

"She is very capable of having games like that," Orrville coach Marcie Alberts said. "This was a breakout game for her and hopefully it will build her confidence."

Jessy Luster's jumper moments later trimmed the Chipps' lead to 66-64, but Cheyanne Boyan answered with a three-pointer with 39 seconds left that all but sealed the win.

Brandy Workinger converted a three-point play to cut the Riders' deficit to 69-67 with 25 seconds left, but Orrville got no closer as the Chipps closed out the win with two free throws. Chippewa went to the charity stripe 43 times in the game and made 35 of those attempts, with senior point guard Ashley Canter (career-high 25 points) nailing 17 of her 19 attempts from the line.

"We wanted Ashley to attack the basket tonight and that's what she did," Schrock said. "Ashley might only be 5-5, but she is a tough player and is very good at attacking the basket."

The fact that Chippewa spent so much time at the free-throw line did not sit well with Alberts. She held nothing back when commenting on the officiating in a game where her team went to the line only 24 times. Orrville made 17 of those attempts.

"The officials weren't neutral tonight and that's not fair to our girls," Alberts said. "I know I might get in trouble for saying that, but I don't care. It's tough enough coming into a hostile environment and then to have it be seven-on-five most of the night is unfair. Chippewa is a good team, don't get me wrong. But the officiating was just terrible."

The game was close through the first eight minutes.

Orrville jumped out to a 6-2 lead and would trail 15-14 at the end of the first period. Chippewa, though, used a momentum-killing 20-1 run over the first 4:40 of the second quarter, taking advantage of Orrville miscues along the way. Heather Hoffman's two free throws started the spurt and Brittany Jursik's 3-pointer capped it. By the time the Red Riders had a chance to collect themselves and look up at the scoreboard, it was 35-15 Chippewa.

Chippewa's defensive pressure was pivotal in that spurt as the Chipps forced 22 first-half turnovers. Orrville finished with 29 turnovers for the game, compared to 19 for Chippewa.

"The first half really hurt us," Alberts said. "We committed a lot of turnovers against (Mansfield) Senior and that's what happened again tonight. We got down too far and you can't do that against a team like Chippewa."

As bad as things looked at halftime, though, the Red Riders refused to quit. They fell behind by as many as 21 in the third quarter before slowly chipping away at the lead. In addition to Winters' big second half, Jessy Luster scored 10 of her 17 points in the final 16 minutes.

"I was proud of our effort. We played great in the second half. I couldn't have asked for anything more from the girls."

Petit and Boyan joined Canter in double figures, scoring 13 and 11, respectively. Jursik added nine points for the Chipps.

"I don't think the big lead we had in the first half affected us," Schrock said. "Orrville just got the momentum and took advantage of it. But the bottom line is that we won. It wasn't pretty, but it was a win."